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Frogid Project Resources FrogID Project Resources Build Your Own Frog Pond With FrogID and Bunnings frogid.net.au FrogID Project Build Your Own Frog Pond with FrogID and Bunnings 1 1. Background Bunnings and the About the Australian Museum Australian Museum Bunnings and the Australian Museum Established in 1827, the AM, is the nation’s (AM) have partnered together on a first museum, and the fifth oldest natural world-leading citizen-science project history museum in the world. The AM called FrogID. enriches the community by researching, exhibiting, educating and communicating This national campaign, launched in the relationships between people, cultures November 2017, is focused on one of our and the natural environment. The AM, most threatened animal groups – frogs. located in Sydney, is the custodian of an The rapid disappearance of frogs is a unrivalled collection of more than 18.5 warning about the rate of environmental million objects spanning culture and change as their physiology and life-cycle natural history. makes them highly sensitive to changes on land and in water. The goal of the Bunnings and the AM About Bunnings partnership is to engage with local schools Bunnings is the leading retailer of home and communities through the Bunnings improvement and outdoor living products network to: in Australia and New Zealand. Bunnings • create habitats that attract and employs over 40,000 team members and support frogs at schools around operates over 250 warehouses. Bunnings Australia while raising awareness understands that their operations have about the importance of frogs an impact, both on the communities they and the environment work in and more widely. It is fundamental to the Bunnings business to meaningfully • promote the FrogID app and recruit participate in local neighbourhoods and ‘froggers’ (FrogID users) to participate schools and to have a long term focus in a program that is helping to provide on sustainability. an important snapshot of Australia’s environmental health. FrogID is supported by the FrogID app. Resources Developed by the AM in partnership with This document provides details on IBM, the FrogID app uses the latest in the FrogID project and building frog audio recording technology to record frog ponds including: calls. Identification of frogs by appearance is almost impossible for many species, but • How to use the FrogID app identification using frog calls is remarkably • Designing a frog pond accurate. The AM has worked with IBM to develop a mobile application using frog • Building a frog pond with Bunnings ‘audio DNA’, which enables members of • Links to FrogID learning resources the public and students to accurately including activities. identify species and their habitats all through their smart phone. By using the FrogID app and engaging communities, the AM will be able to track changes in frog populations and so gauge the effect of environmental change on different frog species. 2 FrogID Project Build Your Own Frog Pond with FrogID and Bunnings About Frogs Frogs are amphibians that evolved Frogs live on all the large landmasses 350 million years ago. Most amphibian of the world, except Antarctica and species have two parts to their life cycle Greenland. They are most common in (amphibian means ‘both life’) the first in the warm, wet tropics, but they also live water during the egg and larva stage in rainforests, deserts, alpine areas and and the second on land during the above and below ground. adult stage. Frogs require moisture to survive and to There are five native families of frogs breed. Most frog species are nocturnal in Australia as well as a sixth and are therefore more active, and vocal, introduced family: after dusk. Given their reliance on water for breeding, frogs tend to call more after rain. Some frog species breed almost • Tree Frogs, the Pelodryidae, which all year, others will only breed (and can be divided into climbing, ground- therefore call) a few nights a year. living and water-holding frogs as well as tree-dwelling, ground While the best time to hear frogs is dwelling and almost all entirely typically the warmer months, as most aquatic species, as well as frog species choose to breed in the burrowing frogs. spring and summer, some frog species prefer the cooler months. Others, such • Ground Frogs, the Myobatrachidae as the desert-dwelling Eastern Water- and Limnodynastidae, are unique holding Frog (Cyclorana platycephala), to the Australian region and have will just call anytime that it rains enough. adapted to also live in a wide range of habitats. In almost all frog species, only males call. As every species has a different sounding • Narrow-mouthed Frogs, the call, you can identify frog species just by Microhylidae, which have toe discs listening. The typical calls that we hear for climbing and are mostly walkers frogs make are male frogs advertising rather than leapers. Unlike most themselves as potential partners, hoping other Australian frogs, they have that female frogs will be attracted to direct development where the them. Because the aim of the encounter froglets develop in the egg is to breed, male frogs typically call in or without a tadpole stage. near water (ponds, dams, streams and • True Frogs, the Ranidae, which wetlands), where eggs are most often have long hind legs that allow them laid and tadpoles develop. to swim and leap well. There is only one species of True Frog in Australia. • Toads, the Bufonidae, have a thick dry skin, as well as different bone structure to other families of frogs. The introduced Cane Toad is the only toad in Australia. FrogID Project Build Your Own Frog Pond with FrogID and Bunnings 3 4 FrogID Project Build Your Own Frog Pond with FrogID and Bunnings 2. FrogID Project a. Summary d. How will the FrogID app help frog conservation? The FrogID app and website include details of all 240 Australian native frogs In Australia, we have lost at least four including images, call recordings, habitats species of frog already to extinction, and breeding times. Download and search and many more are at risk. One of the the FrogID mobile app and become a biggest problems we face is that we still citizen scientist by recording frog calls in know so little about our native frogs, for your garden or local area. Data collected example, where they are and how they from the FrogID app will help scientists are doing. The FrogID app aims to make determine where frogs are most at risk of learning about Australian frogs, what is habitat loss, climate change and disease. happening to them, and the importance of conserving frogs, easy. With the FrogID b. Why are frogs important? app, people from all over the country can record frog calls and identify frogs in their Frogs play a vital role in many food webs, area using their smartphones. Using the as both predators and prey. Frogs are FrogID app helps scientists determine major predators of insects and other where our native frog species are found, invertebrates, including pest species. what habitats frogs need to survive As prey, they provide food for birds, and how frog species are responding fish, snakes and other larger animals. to environmental change. Collecting this information and making use of it in Frogs are often the first animals to be conservation efforts could be crucial to affected by environmental change, and saving Australia’s frogs. so may act as biological indicators of the state of the environment. Their special permeable skin makes frogs susceptible to e. How does the environmental changes. Climate change, FrogID app work? habitat destruction, introduced species and disease all have detrimental effects Download on frog populations. Due to the various • Firstly, the FrogID app, iOS app or threats against frog populations and their Android app must be downloaded rapidly decreasing numbers, conservation to a smartphone device. efforts have become vital to their survival. • There is a quick ‘How to’ section that can be used on the app, accessed c. How will FrogID and Bunnings via the ‘About’ section in the ‘Profile’ help frog conservation? screen. In urban areas, human development has • It is necessary to allow the FrogID app reduced the natural habitat available to to know your location. Click ‘Allow’ for frogs. Through the FrogID project and FrogID to access your location while with support from the Bunnings network, you are using the app. frog habitats will be built in local schools. • It is recommended to download offline This will help conservation efforts and content to your phone such as the improve the health of urban and images and calls of the frogs in the suburban ecosystems. app. If you are in a remote location or have limited internet access you will be able to use all the features of FrogID without being connected to the internet. FrogID Project Build Your Own Frog Pond with FrogID and Bunnings 5 Profile Record • A profile must be created to submit a • The next section in the FrogID call. Log in on the ‘Profile’ section or app is the ‘Recording’ section create a profile by signing up with an which is where the sounds of the email address. frog are recorded and there is the opportunity to enter notes and • The Profile page enables you to view: photographs. The app needs to be º all the calls you have recorded given permission to access your mobile’s microphone, for recording º calls you have submitted to work, which should be completed º calls that have been verified as a in the Settings on your phone. frog species Press the red button on the app to º calls that cannot be determined start recording a frog call. At least 20 seconds of recording the call is or are not frogs.
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